Sunday, April 05, 2020

The beautiful Malaysians

Covid-19: Malaysian corporate citizens are coming forward to help

Puchong, 5 April: There will always be one or two ugly Malaysians, even now as our nation - and the whole wide world - grapple with this deadly pandemic. But you'd agree with me, Dear Readers, that there are a hell of a lot more beautiful Malaysians who have stood up to be counted since the outbreak. The people at Air Asia are not the first and won't be the last to do so but it's worth noting that they're doing it despite the airline facing the worst turbulence in its history. Apart from its donation drive for vulnerable communities, the low-fare airline has launched SOS - or Save Our Shops - to help the small merchants.

Advertising revenues, like oil prices, have slumped to ridiculous levels but The Edge still managed to bring together donations worth more than RM21 million to equip our tireless front liners. Tycoon Lee Kim Yew chartered a whole plane to fly in 1.5 million pieces of surgical masks and personal protective equipment (PPEs) for our medical teams dealing directly with Covid-19 cases.

Car sales and the property market will continue to fare poorly for the whole year because of the Covid-19 but Naza still came forward to help boost a national donation drive.

And even before the Government unveiled its RM250 billion stimulus package, Axiata and its subsidiary Celcom had launched a RM150 million cash fund to help micro-SMEs.

These are just some of the wonderful deeds of our fellow Malaysians that I can cite, off hand. There are many, many more. Most don't even want to be known.

A prominent businessman asked me one day how my fellow journalists were keeping with the Movement Control Order (MCO). Y'know, the reporters, photographers, editors, sub-editors, production crew, and the other front-liners who have to go to work because somebody has to gather the news about the pandemic. At the end of the conversation, he offered some money for the Journalist Welfare Fund under the National Press Club of Malaysia to help out journalists and our members in whichever way we can during the MCO period. I said it was very kind of him, and this was what he said:

"Bro, it's at time like this that we really need to stand and be counted. Not for publicity or applause but because those of us who can, must. This is when we must."

The NPC has been reaching out to journalists in need during this period. It's not much but we hope it can still make a difference. At the very least, we're letting the journalists know that there are those who are thinking of them during this difficult period.